Nothing works in isolation.

Follow the relationships between nine families. Arrows describe selected dependencies, not asset transfers or a complete architecture.

Select a family in the diagram or explore the equivalent topic lists below. On a small screen, swipe across the diagram. For actual asset movements, follow a guided journey.

Foundations

The tools of ownership

Keys, signatures, wallets, and the difference between control and custody.

Cryptographic hashes Digital signatures Private keys, public keys and addresses Seed phrases and recovery What a wallet actually does Multisig and shared authorization Smart contracts and programmable obligations Zero-knowledge proofs

Networks & consensus

Agreeing on a shared history

Transactions become blocks. Independent participants decide which history to accept.

A transaction from intent to settlement Nodes and independent verification Blocks and ordered execution What a blockchain adds Proof of work Mining, pools and block rewards Proof of stake Validators and their duties Finality and confirmations Forks, reorganizations and rule changes Bitcoin as a complete system UTXOs and change outputs Ethereum and account-based systems Gas, fees and failed execution

Assets & tokens

What a token represents

Native assets, stablecoins, and tokens with very different kinds of claims.

Token standards and allowances Token supply, incentives and value Stablecoins and the peg Fiat-backed stablecoins Crypto-backed stablecoins Algorithmic stablecoins and reflexive backing NFTs: unique tokens, separate rights Tokenization and offchain claims

Markets & trading

Where exchange happens

Order books, pools, prices, and the obligations behind derivatives.

Centralized exchanges Decentralized exchanges Order books and market depth Automated market makers Price impact and slippage Derivatives and margin Perpetual futures and funding

Staking

Putting assets behind consensus

Follow stake through validators, pools, intermediaries, and additional commitments.

Staking and validator rewards Delegated staking and pools Liquid staking tokens Restaking

Lending

Collateral meets credit

Trace deposits, debt, interest, oracle prices, and liquidation.

DeFi lending Borrowing against collateral Collateral and borrowing capacity Liquidation and bad debt Leverage and recursive borrowing Utilization and interest rates

Liquidity & yield

Where the return comes from

Trading fees, changing inventory, incentives, and compounding assumptions.

Liquidity providers LP inventory and divergence loss Yield farming and incentives APR, APY and net return

Scaling & connections

Moving beyond one chain

Rollups, bridges, interoperability, and the dependencies between networks.

Bridges and wrapped claims Interoperability and cross-chain messages Layer-two networks Optimistic rollups Validity proofs and rollups Data availability

Coordination & risk

Who can change the rules?

Oracles, governance, ordering, and the ways connected systems fail.

Oracles and outside information Transaction ordering and MEV Governance and control How crypto systems fail How to read a protocol Custody and control Privacy and public ledgers